Modern vehicles, and especially all-terrain vehicles, are designed with ride control systems, for example, in order to compensate for level differences caused by road or terrain roughness. For this purpose, the ride control system comprises adjustment devices to adapt the level position of a vehicle, which are designed, for example, as pneumatic springs, and are operated by a compressor. In addition, the ride control system includes slope and/or distance sensors, so-called vehicle height sensors, to record the distance to the road base. The data of these sensors are evaluated by a control device and the compressor is driven, so that it operates the pneumatic springs, so that a level position set as reference value is adjusted.
The processes for stabilization of the vehicle parallel to the plane of the roadway require time. This can mean that the vehicle loses ground clearance in the transition from a sharply sloping section of road to a flat section of road.
A determination device is known, for example, from DE 698 06 719 T2, to determine the gradient of a section of road, and to reactivate the ride control system, if necessary. If the determination device finds that a recorded acceleration is lower than a predetermined acceleration and a recorded vehicle height has shifted by at least a predetermined value relative to a reference level position, it is then determined that the vehicle is on a sloped road. The determination device, known from DE 698 06 719 T2, is based on the assumption that it is impossible for an ordinary vehicle on a steeply sloped section to travel at medium or high speed.
Instead of a determination device, slope sensors to determine a gradient are conceivable. Such sensors, however, have a complicated design and are consequently expensive to produce.